


The Story of the Picture

by KaibaSlaveGirl34



Series: Prompt Fics [16]
Category: Wishbone (TV)
Genre: Books, Community: comment_fic, Diary/Journal, Epistolary, Gardens & Gardening, Gen, Inspired by Music, Novel, Reading, Song: Man in the Long Black Coat, Treasure Hunting, Wordcount: Under 10.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-29
Updated: 2011-10-29
Packaged: 2017-10-25 01:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/270444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaibaSlaveGirl34/pseuds/KaibaSlaveGirl34
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oneshot. When Wishbone finds a picture while digging in Wanda’s backyard, he learns a few things about life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Story of the Picture

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Harry2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harry2/gifts).



> Hey there. Here’s a new oneshot I cooked up one day. This is my first Wishbone fanfic, so be nice, please. After all, encouraging feedback is what I need to write more often.
> 
> Disclaimer: Genius Rick Duffield owns Wishbone. The lyrics to Man In the Long Black Coat by Joan Osborne belong to their respective owners. I own the fanfics I cook up from time to time.

The Story of the Picture

Wishbone’s rump sported a wagging tail as it stuck up from the hole in Wanda’s garden. He was digging up her flowerbeds, both to solve some mystery about some photo, and just because he was like that.

“Wishbone, what are you up to, boy?” asked Wanda Gilmore, Wishbone’s next-door neighbor. “Digging for treasure?”

Wishbone nodded.

“Oh, I love treasure. Let me help,” said Wanda, smiling. She got a trowel and began digging with Wishbone. Soon Wishbone emerged with a photo in his mouth. Wanda took it and held it up.

“This is some treasure. Thanks, Wishbone,” said Wanda.

“You’re welcome, Wanda,” said Wishbone.

Then Ellen Talbot and her son Joe, twelve, walked up.

“Hey, Miss Gilmore,” said Joe, smiling.

“Hello, Joe, Ellen. Look at this.” She showed them the photo. “Wishbone was digging for something and I helped him a bit. We found this. It was taken a long time ago when I was a teenager. It was my senior prom, and I looked so… beautiful.” She smiled. “I had lost this photo a few years ago. Now, thanks to Wishbone, I’ve found it again.”

 _Wow,_ thought Wishbone. _But one question still eludes me — what’s a senior prom?_

That night, Wanda wrote in her diary about her find. _“Thanks to Wishbone,”_ she wrote, _“I feel like everything’s brand new.”_

The next day, Wishbone woke up to the sunshine streaming in through the window. It was Monday, as Joe was already at school and Ellen was at work at the Henderson Memorial Public Library.

So Wishbone trotted over to the bookshelf and sat in front of it, reading the various titles: Treasure Island. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. West African Folk Tales.

Classics, they were. He had imagined himself as the main or secondary characters in those books. He had a big imagination after all.

 _No one ever listens to the dog,_ he thought sometimes.

It was then that he got up and went to his big red chair. With a leap, he was on there. He then lay down.

He knew he had a normal life… well, if you called an adventure-filled life “normal”. He thought over all the adventures he had had with his friends, all the bad guys he had caught, and smiled.

This was the way life was in Wishbone’s point of view. Either you loved it, or you disliked it, depending on the situation.

_Somebody’s seen him hangin’ around_  
_At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town_  
_He looked into her eyes when she stopped him to ask_  
_If he wanted to dance he had a face like a mask_  
_Somebody said, from the Bible he quote_  
_There was dust on the man in the long black coat_

Wishbone then remembered the book “The Phantom of the Opera” when he heard the lyrics to “Man in the Long Black Coat” by Joan Osborne. The “like a mask” part reminded him of Erik, the title character.

Erik was the Phantom of the Opera, and he wore a mask to hid his disfigured face. He finally found love at the end after being denied it for so many years in seclusion at the Opera House in Paris, France.

 _Amazing how a song lyric reminds one of a book character,_ Wishbone thought.

And that was true.

**Author's Note:**

> Nice feedback is appreciated, of course. :)


End file.
